Well, there's bad news: Walker and Mandela are gone. They're not rising from the dead.

The good: Brian Griffin will.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Family Guy's writers plan on bringing back the dog, only two weeks after he was run over by a car, for the show's Dec. 15 episode. How Brian will return from the dead isn't yet known (he's an atheist on the show, so it's difficult to see him coming back via any religious means), but it's important to remember that the show is a cartoon, and fictional. One of the last big deaths was when Stewie “killed” Lois; it turned out she was saved by a merman. Again, the show is a cartoon. I really want to make sure that point is driven home.

Anyway, the show's creators revealed that Brian was killed as a way to “shake things up.” “As soon as this idea came up,” said executive producer Steve Callaghan, “we started talking about what the next couple episodes could be and we got very excited about the way this change will affect the family dynamics and the characters.” The family even got a new dog, Vinny (voiced by The Sopranos' Tony Sirico), and the final burial scene was pretty emotional.

We'll see if Vinny stays. Odds are, probably not. Which would satisfy any Rule of Three requirements, I guess.